Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman: The unfinished song that became a classic

A simple tale of a lonely telephone repairman working in the vast open plains of the American Midwest, Wichita Lineman is one of the most perfectly realised pop songs of all time.

Released in 1968, and written by Jimmy Webb, it was the first top 10 single for country singer Glen Campbell, who died on Monday, aged 81.

Like many of his fans, Campbell's reaction to the song was immediate and tender.

"When I heard it I cried," he told BBC Radio 4 in 2011. "It made me cry because I was homesick."

The lyrics describe a lineman who is also pining for home and imagines he can hear his absent lover "singing in the wire".
"I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time," he tells her. "And the Wichita Lineman, is still on the line."